To the editor:

Robert Hest’s letter of Jan. 29 must be challenged on several important points. In particular, Mr. Hest says that returning to the speeds of the railroad’s “heyday” would allow trains to carry passengers from Utica to Lake Placid in just over three hours – scheduled stops included. I have looked at timetables from each decade of the 20th century up to 1950, and the fastest service (1940) from Utica to Lake Placid took five hours and five minutes. (1) This is an average speed of 27 mph, not the 45 mph Mr. Hest claims.

Mr. Hest also believes that more than 400 passengers per day will ride this train. That would mean filling up a seven-car train (60 passengers per car) each day, something that is extremely unlikely for a five-hour ride – and that’s after one gets to Utica. Possibly some of the new young families that will be drawn to the new industries near Albany won’t choose to own a car, but they are far more likely to rent a car for the two-hour drive to Lake Placid rather than subjecting young children to – counting two hours to Utica – seven hours on a train.

Yes, there have been times when my driving through Cascade Pass has been slowed to 40 mph behind a camping trailer. I still got where I was going in good time, and there is no way that the train is going to eliminate that camping trailer. As for the repeated argument that rail transport is “greener” than motor vehicles, it just isn’t significantly more fuel-efficient. Amtrak manages to achieve about 72 passenger miles per gallon (2). Three people in even a 25 mpg vehicle do slightly better. In a fuel-efficient hybrid, it only takes two people to better Amtrak’s average. And by far the most fuel-efficient transport is a well-patronized bus that gets around 200 passenger miles per gallon – and these can run on the roads we already have with no increase in state spending.

As I’ve said before, rail passenger service to the Tri-Lakes ended 50 years ago for good reason – no one was using it. Since then, the Northway has been completed, the roads and their maintenance has significantly improved, and the vehicles are far more reliable and comfortable. This is just not an area that can support passenger rail service – not at 45 mph, and certainly not at 27 mph.

Tony Goodwin

Keene

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Footnotes:

1. 1940 New York Central timetable, www.canadasouthern.com/caso/ptt/images/tt-0940.pdf. Adirondack Division is in Table 8.

2. truecostblog.com/2010/05/27/fuel-efficiency-modes-of-transportation-ranked-by-mpg/